The History Project

Every summer, Americans practice two favored activities, farming and lawncare, and a West Virginian invented a product that is valued for both pursuits. Born in Dunbar in 1876, America's centennial year, 1876, and given a famous inventor's name, Benjamin Franklin Gravely would make a great contribution to America's agrarian culture.  He and his wife were raising five children on two acres of land...

After fire destroyed West Virginia's capitol in 1921, leaders decided to create a new magnificent building to replace it and who better to design it than America's first star architect, Cass Gilbert. Around the nation, Gilbert's structures graced town squares, capital cities and vaunted skylines. Gilbert's Woolworth Building in New York set the standard for the American skyscraper. So, when he cam...

Twenty-five states have changed their minds about the location of their capitals, so West Virginia is in good company. Nonetheless, the back and forth between Wheeling and Charleston makes for one of the Mountain State's most amusing stories. Just shortly after being granted statehood during the Civil War's battle between North and South, West Virginia's capital location became a battle royale bet...

When journalist Herbert Morrison was sent to cover the arrival of the Hindenburg by Chicago radio station WLS, he thought it would be an exciting foray to see the possible future of air travel. But instead, his coverage would be the world's first recorded broadcast of an eyewitness account of a major world disaster. As if that weren't enough, Morrison and his sound engineer had to sneak the record...

Country music star Little Jimmy Dickens did not even hit 5 feet in height, but his talent, humor and personality filled huge auditoriums around the world.  He started at a radio station in Morgantown and was discovered by Roy Acuff, who put him on the path to stardom. His countless hits and popularity made him one of Nashville's biggest stars, placing him in the company of Hank Williams and Merle...

Everyone knows that Mary Tyler Moore was a talented actress, equally adept at comedy and drama, and winner of multiple awards.  Her beauty and charm propelled her to become a favorite celebrity who used her popularity for the good of others. What many may not know is that some of her philanthropy was aimed at Shepherd University in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle, where her family heritage stret...

As America entered the Civil War, it grappled with the idea of fellow countrymen fighting each other. When West Virginia separated from Virginia, the two states had rancor over their opposition. But within West Virginia itself, the idea of "brother against brother" could be quite literal as the borders of the new state concealed opposing sides that were almost in equal measure. Union and Confedera...

Slavery has been called America's original sin, and its origins on the Virginia coast made it a tragic staple of the state's and the South's economy. Western Virginia counties, like the Northern states, had a far smaller percentage of enslaved residents, but, of course, one slave is one too many.  Through a complicated process endorsed by President Lincoln, West Virginia was able to end the atroci...

Before West Virginia could be rent from Virginia, all allegiances to the Old Dominion or support for the Confederate States had to be eradicated. General George B. McClellan was put in charge of the Ohio Valley states, which included the western portion of Virginia. He launched a campaign on the region that was successful in every possible way and made a name for himself that would put him onto th...

Factions in both the North and the South had reached a stalemate; the South would keep its practice of slavery and the North would mostly turn a blind eye. Abolitionist John Brown went after the abomination with such a vengeance, that it was impossible for the nation to continue ignoring an atrocity they had accepted as fact. First in Kansas and finally in Harpers Ferry, John Brown let loose a bat...

Huntington's favorite son first made his name as a star at Douglass High School, and then went just a few blocks away to Marshall University. Being the first Black player at any West Virginia college, he shattered ceilings as well as records. First drafted into the NBA by the Syracuse Nationals, he made his name legendary when the team transferred to Philadelphia and became the Seventy-Sixers, whe...

In the 19th century, the National Road reached from Cumberland, Maryland to Wheeling but was hindered by the wide Ohio River. That problem languished for over three decades before leaders took the situation into hand. They invited the nation's two leading engineers to compete for the task of designing a landmark bridge, but fate managed to make them both a part of its final design. The Wheeling Su...

Amusement parks started in Europe, evolving from pleasure gardens and fairs, but in the United States, they were created as waterside attractions or by local trolley companies to encourage more ridership on weekends. Created around the turn of the 20th century and called "trolley parks," there were hundreds of them throughout the country and West Virginia was no exception. With seven trolley parks...

Joseph McCarthy was a little-known Senator from Wisconsin when he came to Wheeling in February 1950 to address the Ohio County Republican Women's Club. But after giving an incendiary speech in which he claimed to have a list of communist traitors throughout the federal government, McCarthy's name was on the lips of all Americans. With the bitter seeds he planted in Wheeling, he grew the vociferous...

Education is a basic foundation for any individual whose goal is to change the way the world sees things, and Carter G. Woodson built one of the strongest foundations of anyone, much less the son of former slaves. Woodson collected advanced degrees the way some people collect coins and stamps, but with a greater purpose, which was to educate the world, especially about the contributions of Black p...

When history is told, it is often shaped by those who've benefitted most in the telling of its story.  Sometimes it takes someone to rouse us from our complacency and remind us that history is shared by everyone and before Carter G. Woodson did that for us, a coal miner from Fayette County, West Virginia named Oliver Jones did it for him, setting in motion one of America's most significant educati...

American history is full of famous names, but only a few are fully recognized by most everyone and Booker T. Washington is one of those names. The author of "Up From Slavery" used his own story to help bring about racial reform.  From enslavement to the halls of academe, Washington became the right man for his times.  

Christopher Payne—known as C.H. to his friends—lived more lives than a collection of most people. Born into enslavement, his mother insisted upon getting him an education.  After the Civil War, he was able to become a teacher and a pastor before publishing newspapers in which he addressed the stories of African Americans. He moved through the world of politics to garner the respect of President Te...

Sometimes the path to greatness goes through some unsavory territory. Before Stephen Benton Elkins rose to prominence, his rise included business dealings that remain a dark part of our nation's history.  He came to West Virginia from the American Southwest when he married into a U.S. Senator's family, whose support would eventually make him a Senator, too.

Americans love a good rags-to-riches story and few could rival that of Henry Gassaway Davis. Born into a meager merchant's family, Davis worked his way up through the railroad and developed investments to build an empire, and joining the elite of Capitol Hill in Washington, founding many West Virginia towns and one of its beloved colleges. 

Robert Graetz, Jr. saw wrong and worked to correct it when he became friends with Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama after she refused to give up her seat on a city bus. The only white reverend in the city to support and aid the bus boycott, the former Charlestonian also became friends with Dr. Martin Luther King, as he joined in the fight for equality, armed with the spirit of faith and humanity. 

It's an old joke that well-behaved women seldom make history and while that may not be true, Mother Jones put the maxim to the test. Having lost her entire family to a yellow fever epidemic, Jones dedicated her life to helping American laborers get their fair share. A firebrand whose voice still rings through the hills of West Virginia, she left her mark on the state and our nation. YouTube: https...

Heroes often rise from the place where they were born, and Frank Keeney is just such an example. Born in Cabin Creek, he grew up in the epicenter of the labor struggle of West Virginia's southern coalfields. He did not wait for things to get fixed but decided to fix them himself, getting elected to the UMWA and leading the miners to the first major strike in the state. YouTube:  https://www.youtub...

When a young Mary Lou Retton of Fairmont saw Nadia Comaneci compete in the 1976 Olympics, she decided that gymnastics was for her. After local coaching and training from Comaneci's coach, she ascended to the same heights as her heroine and became a role model for later American gymnastic Olympians like Kerri Strug and Simone Biles.

Every West Virginian knows that "Mountaineers Are Always Free" but what many may not know is that our state motto was a quick addition to our state seal by its designer. A Frenchman came to the mountains and blended the imagery of his old and new homes to give West Virginia its symbolism. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lps8fSbGJUc